Universal facepiece for gas masks



Oct. 4, 1938.

O. I. GAINES ET AL UNIVERSAL F'ACEPIECE FOR GAS MASKS Filed Aug. 12, 1955 INVENTORS 04/1/51? GAINES mLL/AM 4. /='E/27-/ G= 3' ATTORNbU Patented Oct. 4, 1938 UNITED STATES @PATENT OFFICE Application August 12, 1935, Serial No. 35,718

3 Claims.

(Granted under the act of March 3, 1883, as

amended April 30,

The invention described herein may be manuvfactured and used by or for the Government for governmental purposes, without the payment of any royalty thereon.

This invention relates to an improved gas mask which fits all sizes and shapes of faces without discomfort to the wearer.

Prior to this invention, much difliculty was encountered in the fitting of gas masks to various in shapes and sizes of faces. In order for a gas mask to be fully effective, it must form a gas-- tight joint around its entire periphery with the wearer's face. A mask which properly fitted a round face could usually not be fitted to a long 1. face with hollow checks, or one with a protruding chin, or sunken temples.

To overcome these difiiculties, the United States Army previously made gas masks in five different sizes. Although a satisfactory fit could generally be obtained on every face with. one of these sizes, the manufacture, storage, and issue of five sizes of gas mask was very complicated, necessitating many dies, jigs, records, and costs of manufacture; requiring the shipping of masks to organizations in excess of the strength of the organization to insure having enough of the various sizes; requiring a careful judging of each person to insure that he receive the correct size mask. Furthermore, it was sometimes necessary to fit a soldier with an incorrect size mask due to lack of a correct size. e

The above difiiculties were further complicated when used masks were turned in for reconditioning and storage for future use.

An object of this invention is to overcome the above difiiculties by providing a gas mask made inone universal size which will properly fit many categories of sizes and shapes of faces without discomfort. This object has been attained by a 1-1 careful study of the causes of leakage of prior facepiecesand by providing the optimum apportioning and proportioning of the facepiece area together with means for making effective this optimum area and proportioning.

In order to make the invention more clearly understood, reference may be had to the accompanying drawing wherein Fig. 1 shows the improved facepiece blank comparison with a prior size 4 blank;

Fig. 2 shows the improved facepiece in side elevation;

Fig. 3 is a section on line 3-3 of Fig. 2.

Referring to Fig. 1, wherein the improved faceblank is shown in full lines, the faceblank I may 65 be made of any suitable material such as rubberized fabric or, imitation leather or the like, i which is impermeable to the gases against which protection is desired. The complete faceblank is symmetrical on opposite sides of its center line.

This faceblank has openings 2 therein for the reception of transparent eyepieces 3, Fig. 2. The faceblank is bent so that the two lower, edges 4 meet and these edges are then stitched together and the chin seam then formed is sealed to make it gas-tight. The curved lower center 5 forms a circular opening into which is secured the fitting 6 for the inhalation and exhalation tubes. The general arrangement of the eyepieces and the inhalation and exhalation tubes are shown in- Fig. 2.

As seen in Fig. 1, our improved facepiece differs from the prior facepiece in size and shape at certain critical portions. For clarity, the prior face piece is shown in broken lines. The lower portions 4, which when assembled form the cavity into which the wearers chin rests, are cut lower to provide a deeper pocket. Furthermore, these portions ,4 are terminated approximately A inch short of the prior faceblank as seen at B. This change serves to relieve pressure on the neck of men having very short chins.

From the points 6, our improved faceblank is out nearly vertically to the points I, in contrast to the old faceblank which was cut at an angle to this point. This improvement eliminates material from the lower cheek portion. From points I, the upper cheek portion, including the tabs to which the head harness is secured, has been redesigned. The tab portions are wider, as seen at 9, and are slightly shorter. The reinforcement patches II are placed nearer the upper ends of the tabs 8."

This redesigning and enlarging of the areas just below and in front of the wearer's ears provides amplematerial with which to form a gastight seal on large faces whatever the facial conj tour, at the same time eliminating such excess material in this location as would interfere with the hearing or comfort of personnel having rela tively small adult faces.

Just above the tabs 8, our improved design provides additional material as at I2, with less' material at the temple portions. Another reinforcing portion I3 is provided at the temple position for another head harness strap. These changes all contribute to provide a gas-tight seal at the temples of many categories of wearers, including those persons having sunken temples and protruding cheek bones.

Another head harness strap is secured to reinforcement strap M, as in prior designs. In order to insure a gas-tight seal atthe cheek portions and the temple portions, a special form of double attachment of the harness straps is used, as shown in Fig. 3. This includes a short fabric strap i5 into a loop of which a head harness buckle I6 is stitched. The ends of the fabric strap are bent back and stitched to facepiece I at or adjacent each end and in such manner as to cause the end portion nearest the buckle to stand at right angles to the facepiece, thus forming a double attachment strap.

By this construction a pull on buckle l6 causes the facepiece to be turned or wrinkledinwardly adjacent its periphery thus forming a gas-tight seal, over all facial contours.

From Fig. 2 it will be seen that the two straps l1 and I8 are positioned just above and below the wearer's ear, the head harness straps being so arranged as not to interfere with the hearing.

The openings 2 in the facepiece are so located as to give optimum positioning of the lenses with respect to chin pocket. As seen in Fig. 2, our improved mask provides these openings about inch lowerthan in prior masks, thereby providing maximum serviceable vision for a large range of adult face sizes.

All of the above described changes contribute to the novel result attained, i. e., a gas mask of universal fit for many categories of adult faces with maximum comfort and maximum rangeof vision, resulting in increased efiiciency and economy in production, and comfort and-effectiveness in use never heretofore attained in gas masks.

While we have shown and described the preferred embodiment of this invention, we wish it to be understood that'we do not-confine ourselves to the precise details of construction herein set forth by way of illustration, as it is apparent that many changes and variations may be made therein by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention or exceeding the scope of the appended claims.

We claim:

1. A gas mask providing a gas-tight and comfortable fit on a large number of categories of sizes and shapes of adult faces, said mask comprising an impermeable flexible facepiece, lenses mounted therein with the centers thereof coinciding with the eye centers of that category presenting the smallest of said sizes and shapes of adult fortable fit on a large number of categories of sizesand shapes of adult faces, said mask com prising an impermeable flexible facepiece, lenses mounted therein with the centers thereof coinciding substantially with the eye centers of that category presenting the smallest of said sizes and shapes of adult faces, the facepiece having extended areas at the cheek portions which extend to a point just in front of the ears of that category presenting the smallest of said sizes and shapes of adult faces, two double attachment straps secured to said extended areas on each side, one strap positioned above and one positioned below the center of said lenses, said straps serving to wrinkle the facepiece inwardly when under tension, to thereby form a tight seal on many categories of facial contours.

3. The invention as defined inclaim 2 wherein said attachment straps are substantially parallel and with the portions thereof nearer the lenses raised with respect to the portions nearer the periphery of the mask.

OLIVER I. GAINES. WILLIAM A. FERTIG. 

